This invention relates to hose reels for holding hose pipes for watering.
When a hose pipe is unwound from a known hose reel the momentum of the unwinding motion tends to cause more hose pipe to be unwound than is required, resulting in the outermost turn or so of the hose pipe being no longer neatly coiled around the drum of the hose reel. This partial uncoiling of the last turn or so of the portion of hose pipe remaining on the reel (after another portion of the hose pipe has been pulled out) is known as overrun and the object of the invention is to provide a hose reel not suffering from overrun.
According to the invention a hose reel has a drum rotatable in a first direction to cause a hose pipe to be wound around the drum and in a second direction to cause or allow the hose pipe to be unwound from the drum, wherein the drum has a damper operative to damp rotational movement of the drum in the second direction in order to prevent unwanted unwinding of the hose pipe from the drum.
The hose reel is preferably manually operated without spring assistance, the hose reel being equipped with a handle the rotation of which in the first direction causes the hose pipe to be wound onto the drum, the hose pipe being pulled out from the hose reel (with attendant rotation of the drum in the second direction), for unwinding of the hose pipe from the drum.
The damper preferably takes the form of a rotary dashpot having an outer casing mounted on the drum and an inner rotor which is rotatable with respect to the casing when the drum is rotated in the second direction. Preferably, the damper applies no damping action to the drum when the latter is rotated in the first direction.
The handle may form part of a drive assembly carrying a gear wheel the teeth of which mesh with a pinion which drives the inner rotor of the damper.
In a preferred arrangement, the drive assembly also includes a drive dog which is capable of engagement with a driven dog rotatable with the drum, the dogs being urged apart by a spring when the drum is rotated in the second direction but being urged into engagement, against the bias of the spring, when the handle assembly is rotated to turn the drum in the first direction.